Extended Iraq duty weighs on the troops

Longer tours put simple joys of home even further away and mean cramped quarters on the base

December 03, 2004|By Kirsten Scharnberg, Tribune correspondent.

KIRKUK, Iraq — Some plans were bigger than others.

To live, for the first time, with the wife he married while home on leave.

To shower with hot water.

To be there as his wife's daughter, recently diagnosed with congenital heart disease, goes to doctor appointments.

To eat good pizza.

When the Pentagon announced Wednesday that some 10,000 troops serving in Iraq would have their tours of duty extended for several months, there was a lot of talk of security and force strength, of the upcoming Iraq election and the goal of democracy.

But on an Army base here in this northern Iraq city, soldiers were focused on the smaller, more personal effects Washington's decision had for the boots on the ground. Their reaction was mostly one of resignation, not anger.

"I had a son in October. I haven't met him yet," said Sgt. Eric Wing, 24. "I was mostly wanting to get home for him."

Some people compare a military deployment to a marathon--a task requiring physical and mental pacing. Under that comparison, the soldiers of the 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division had nearly completed their 26.2 miles when they found out they would have to run even farther.

"Like any soldier over here, we're all ready to go home," said Sgt. Matthew Yost.

The soldiers in Kirkuk were to have been bound for the U.S. shortly after Christmas, when they were to turn over their area of operations to a replacement unit en route to Iraq. They had even instructed their families not to send holiday gifts because it would only add to the things they had to pack.

Living space tightens

But now it appears it will be at least March before the brigade heads back to Hawaii, where it is based. Even worse, because the bulk of their replacements will be in Iraq within weeks, there will be a shortage of living space. As a result, the soldiers of the 2nd Brigade are to be kicked out of the comfortable two-person trailers where they have been living and sent to cots in crowded tents, just as the cold, wet winter settles into this region of Iraq.

"It's an insult," one soldier complained as the news spread through the base Thursday.

The decision to raise troop strength will produce the highest level of U.S. forces in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. By the time of Iraq's scheduled January election, some 150,000 troops will be in the country, compared with 148,000 during the initial phases of the war. After the elections, numbers are expected to dip back down to about 138,000.

The goal, according to the Pentagon, is twofold: to ensure there are enough troops to respond to any spikes in violence in the weeks around the controversial election and to continue the onslaught against insurgents in hotspots such as Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra.

"This will allow us to absolutely pile onto the enemy with about 30 percent more force," said Maj. Gen. John Batiste, the ranking commander in charge of the region, which includes the city of Kirkuk. "We can try to throw them off their game as we glide into the election."

Batiste was speaking Thursday afternoon at a meeting of high-ranking officers of the 25th ID and those of the 116th Brigade Combat Team, the Idaho National Guard unit that is to relieve the brigade in Kirkuk. The two units were going over their "relief in place" operation, a detailed plan that covers every step of turning over military control of a city. Because of the extension, though, it looks as if the two units actually will overlap in the city until after the election.

The official date of the transfer of power between the 2nd Brigade of the 25th and the 116th is now up in the air.

Col. Lloyd Miles, commander of the 2nd brigade of the 25th, said Thursday he understands his soldiers' disappointment at having to stay in Iraq longer than the scheduled year. Miles knows all about children who have "days until Dad comes home" calendars and spouses who are exhausted from running the household alone. He missed his son's 4th birthday last year and hoped to be home in time for his 5th, in March.

But the colonel sees the tactical benefit in keeping his unit in Kirkuk a while longer.

`We know this city'

"This was the city that people predicted would spiral into civil war after Saddam," Miles said, noting that Kirkuk is nearly evenly split between Muslims, Turkmen and Kurds. "But so far that hasn't happened. We know this city--all its ins and outs--and that will be extremely useful as we approach these elections."

Moreover, Miles said, because the city is such a complex mixture of ethnic groups with disparate interests, his soldiers can use the additional time to fully brief their incoming counterparts on details that might otherwise have been missed during a speedier transfer.

Still, the way the announcement of the extension was handled has left some soldiers here a bit annoyed. Before they were notified, a news release was sent to the Hawaii media.

"All the wives knew first," said Wing, the soldier eager to meet his new son. "This is hardest on them, I think."

Capt. Jamie Garcia agreed: "We've put our heart and soul into this city for the past year and we feel like we have even more to do. We can lose ourselves in that, in the mission. They don't have that."

But for the most part the soldiers here aren't complaining that much. Yes, they're sick of the bad food. Yes, they're tired of having to walk out into the cold night to relieve themselves.

But they have personally been at the scenes of roadside bombings and watched friends die, friends who won't ever go home to new babies or hot showers or fresh pizza.

"Those images are indelibly etched in my mind, and that's fine," Garcia said. "Those are the things that remind us why we're here and the job we've been given. It puts things in perspective and makes all of us feel an even greater responsibility to watch out for all the brothers we're serving with, for as long as we're asked to do so."